Thousands of people have been invited to massive pub crawls as St. Patrick’s Day revelers are determined to celebrate in Hoboken New Jersey in the wake of the cancellation of Hoboken’s traditional St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

Last week, Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer announced that the city’s hugely popular St. Patrick’s Day parade, typically held on the first Saturday of March, would be cancelled following 34 arrests after the 2011 event.

Local businessmen however are also upset about the inevitable loss of profits that are usually brought in during the day’s festivities.

Bill Kirchgessner, owner of United Decorating, a store that makes about 25 percent of its yearly income off St. Patrick’s Day-related products, said of Mayor Zimmer’s decision that “The mayor needs to get her head out of her backside. This is lucrative for everyone in Hoboken. She doesn’t realize she’s making a mistake.

A Facebook event called “2012 NOT Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Parade” is now planned with 600 already invited and close to 100 accepting.Other Facebook events are ” “Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day 2012,” and, “Dawn Zimmer is not invited to Hoboken St Patrick’s day on March 3rd." All of the Facebook events are scheduled for March 3rd, the usual date of the parade.

Matt Harris, creator of the Not Hoboken Parade told participants, “don’t be an idiot” and also notes, “The Hoboken parade has be (sic) canceled because some people can’t handle day drinking ... So why should the actions of some ruin it for us all? Simply put, it shouldn’t.”

NJ.com reports that even though the parade is officially cancelled, the party won’t stop. Pub crawls they say are popping up everywhere.

The groups share a common theme of drinking and celebrating in Hoboken. One even notes that in 2011, a few ‘bad apples’ spoiled the bunch (specifically the 34 arrests over the day for various infractions), and that no one should look to be one of those people this year. Main message? Have fun, but behave.

Bars in the city of Hoboken, which boasts an age demographic of trendy, mostly 20-something year olds, will be reportedly opening at 9am on March 3rd in order to accommodate the growing pub crawls.

Parade or no parade, the party will evidently still go on.

Do you think the cancellation of the parade altogether will do more good than not? Will Hoboken still have to wrangle with rowdy revellers on March 3rd?